Friday Afternoon Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Matt Seybold writes about the message sent at Davos that AI will be forced on people regardless of whether they want it (or whether it will do them anything but harm). And Michael Geist writes about the absurdity of the Carney government allowing the hallucinations of artificial intelligence to override the actual results of public consultation into AI itself. 

- Melissa Troutman and Rebecca Sobel highlight New Mexico's record levels of oil and gas spillage, as the dirty energy industry sees itself as ever more entitled to pollute everything around it. And Olivia Rosane discusses how Louisiana pipeline explosion offers another vivid example of the dangers of fossil fuels which are dumped on unsuspecting and/or marginalized populations. 

- Andrew Longhurst and Rebecca Graff-McRae examine how the UCP's two-tier health care is threatening the public medical system. And Sneh Duggal reports that Ontario's response to increasing levels of hallway health care has been to stop reporting on how often people are forced into it. 

- Finally, Jen St. Denis offers new details as to the far right's operations in Canada - including their sway over right-wing parties. And both Markham Hislop and Don Newman call out Danielle Smith for conjuring up and stoking a separatist threat rather than serving the interests of Alberta and its people. 

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Leana Hosea and Sarij Pathirana report on new data showing that tens of thousands of oil slicks every year are going unreported and doing immense damage to the oceans. And Abrahm Lustgarten discusses new research showing how the climate breakdown and poorly-regulated resource extraction are destroying vital groundwater reserves. 

- Fiona Harvey reports on Antonio Gutierres' pointed observation that renewable energy is vastly (and increasingly) more affordable than fossil fuel energy even without accounting for the environmental harms of the latter. Adrienne Tanner weighs in on China's leading role in transitioning to clean energy - and the choice facing Canada and other countries as to whether to cling to the past or build for the future. 

- Meanwhile, Natasha Bulowski reports on new research showing that electric vehicles have substantial public health benefits even beyond their reduction of carbon pollution compared to dirty energy alternatives. Bill McKibben examines how the Trump regime is trying to stifle the development of renewable energy, while also discussing the options to counter that thumb on the scale. Drew Anderson compiles a thorough list of the subsidies currently keeping Canada addicted to fossil fuels both for our own energy use, and for export purposes. And Mitch Anderson points out that production increases in the Alberta tar sands haven't done anything to help either workers or the province's finances. 

- Greg Sargent talks to Paul Krugman about the reality that the Trump regime's trade deal announcements bear very little resemblance to the reality - as they make everybody worse off, but particularly his own base. And Nathaniel Denaro calls for Canada to approach any negotiations of its own based on the reality that the U.S. is an entirely unreliable trading partner. 

- Andrew Coyne discusses how the Cons' tough-on-crime posturing has given way to advocating for crime without punishment in the case of the Flu Trux Klan. Betsy Powell reports on the response of the Ontario Crown Attorneys Association calling out the demand that prosecutorial discretion in the public interest give way to naked political bias. And Fakiha Baig reports that the UCP is fueling violent racism with its attacks on immigrants.  

- Finally, Kelly Hayes writes that the long-overdue revelations about Donald Trump's close connections to Jeffrey Epstein are crucial in examining the U.S.' culture of elite impunity. And Kate Manne points out the implausibility that dozens of similar but distinct reports of sexual abuse are somehow all to be disbelieved as compared to Trump's ever-changing and farcical denials and evasions.

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Saeed Kamali Dehghan reports on a new World Health Organization study showing the utter lack of progress toward sustainable development, particularly due to the harms caused by our climate breakdown. Mahita Gajanan focuses on the reality that every child's future is threatened by our continued carbon pollution and the culture of exploitation which causes it. And Patrick Greenfield and Jonathan Watts report that JP Morgan Chase - even after decades of profiting off of dirty energy - has issued its own warning of the threat climate change poses to humanity as a whole.

- Paul Fauteux, Howard Mann, Chris McDermott and Guy Saint-Jacques challenge Canada's federal government to finally end our hypocrisy in pushing fossil fuel development while paying lip service to the cause of fighting the climate crisis.

- Nadja Popovich points out the growth in U.S. public support for action to fight climate change, while recognizing that the Republican echo chamber still won't tolerate any concern for our planet. And Gaby Hinsliff takes note of the social stigma finally coming to be attached to businesses clinging to climate denial and delay.

- Edward Helmore reports on new research showing that BP's Deepwater Horizon blowout was even more disastrous than previously understood.

- And finally, Marcelo Lu and Sean Drygas discuss the opportunities available to Canada if we work on becoming leaders in renewable energy, rather than putting our efforts toward being the last fossil fuel pusher standing.

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Joseph Stiglitz discusses how decades of laissez-faire economics and deference to the rich have undermined any effective democratic decision-making. Bruce Boghosian observes that structural change is needed to avoid a tendency toward the concentration of wealth and concurrent rise of inequality. And Owen Jones comments on the need to break up the billionaires' club rather than catering to it.

- Dale Marshall writes that contrary to the constant spin emanating from the same sources as historic climate change denial, Canada's oil industry is doing more environmental damage than ever. And Alex Lubben points out that the harm done by the recent Keystone spill will be virtually impossible to remediate.

- Geoff Leo reports on the shady immigration scheme associated linking the Saskatchewan Party government, the Global Transportation Hub and Brightenview - then follows up by reporting that it's only the latest public exposure that's forced Scott Moe to stop rubber-stamping questionable "investor" nominees.

- Meanwhile, the Brandon Sun highlights why Manitoba has every reason to question Brad Wall's judgment as he's been handed a political appointment to attack public power distribution.

- Finally, Nathaniel Dove reports on the deaths being caused by overcrowding in Saskatchewan's overburdened emergency rooms. And Murray Mandryk contrasts the Sask Party's obsession with megaprojects against the NDP's recognition that people need to come first.

Friday Evening Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Stephen Mihm writes that among other positive outcomes, wealth taxes and other progressive tax options reliably produce a boost in life satisfaction for a large number of people (while having little impact on the positional interests of the ultra-rich against each other). And Derek Thompson is the latest to point out that the Republicans' giveaway to the wealthy - like other trickle-down plans - failed even at its core goal of getting people with concentrated wealth to invest it.

- Meanwhile, David Macdonald examines the distributional impact of the tax cut the Libs are treating as their top priority. And PressProgress notes that the choice to burn fiscal capacity on top-heavy tax baubles rather than social priorities is a pattern for the Libs.

- The AP reports on a large Keystone pipeline leak in North Dakota. And Nives Dolsak and Aseem Prakash warn that the promise of long-term employment from dirty fossil fuels is as illusory as the claim that they don't put the environment at unacceptable risk.

- Richard Zussman reports that rather than kicking the can down the road in setting emission reduction targets as the Libs and Cons have done so many times, British Columbia's NDP government is setting near-term targets to reach its 2030 goal.

- Finally, Dominic O'Sullivan offers some lessons on proportional representation based on New Zealand's experience - including as to how governance can be more stable when parties don't have an incentive to gamble on snap elections. Bob Rae has some ideas as to how a minority Parliament can produce positive results - though it doesn't seem that Justin Trudeau seems remotely interested in taking the hints. And Colin Walmsley and Peter Adamski point out that Canada's distorted electoral system only encourages regional grievances and divides, including the trumped-up warnings about western separatism.

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Richard Partington discusses the rise of inequality and some of the options to combat it. And PressProgress points out the Parliamentary Budget Officer's conclusion that the NDP's plan for a wealth tax can turn money currently being hoarded by the ultra-rich into tens of billions of dollars in new revenue to help build a stronger Canada.

- Meanwhile, George Monbiot writes that the UK Cons are looking to push through Brexit primarily for the purposes of being able to use the shock to further enrich the wealthy. And Gillian Steward discusses the austerity in store for Alberta as Jason Kenney schemes to break his promise not to cut public services.

- Dana Brown examines the case for a public pharmaceutical manufacturer in the U.S. to ensure needed medications are affordable.

- Finally, Isabella O'Malley reports on the massive oil spill on Grand Bahama caused by Hurricane Dorian.

Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Mia Rabson reports on a new Climate Action Network report card showing that Canada's plans for greenhouse gas emissions are as bad as any in the G8, projecting to lead to the same 4 degree temperature increase which would result from from Donald Trump's outright denialism. And Marc Jaccard concludes that the Cons' excuse for a climate plan will actually result in increases in Canada's greenhouse gas emissions over the next crucial decade.

- Meanwhile, Eliane Brum highlights how humanity as a whole is facing severe risks from Brazil's deliberate destruction of the Amazon rain forest in the name of short-term profits.

- Alicia Bridges reports on new research showing how even conventional oil production in Saskatchewan may be resulting in serious risks to drinking water. And Stephanie Tobin examines the false promise of offshore oil spill cleanup - where even ideal conditions result in 90% of what's dumped into water being left there to contaminate marine areas.

- Olivia Tobin reports on Jeremy Corbyn's warnings about the generation of young people being left behind by the UK's Conservative government, while Jagmeet Singh comments on the similar problem with the increasing precarity facing young Canadians. And Heather Scoffield writes about the experience of poverty among people being told they should be grateful for stagnant gaps between the wealthy and the rest of us.

- Finally, Jill Filipovic discusses new research showing how "pro-life" positions are primarily about asserting male dominance over women.

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Alex Hemingway writes about the need for Canada's federal election to include a discussion about democratizing ownership and control of our economy. Nicole Aschoff notes that any discussion about industrial policy needs to include a serious analysis as to who benefits from economic development. And Tristan Hughes argues that the SNC Lavalin scandal represents only a tiny slice of the problem of government subservience to the corporate sector - and that we can't ignore the structural problems in favour of disputes over the scandal's specifics.

- Gamechangers points out how federal corporate tax cuts - like those in so many other jurisdictions - have failed to produce any promised returns for anybody outside the shareholder and executive classes. And Allan Lanthier notes that estate freezes represent one more mechanism for wealth to accumulate across generations without helping to fund the society which enables it.

- Mae Nam writes about the need for unions to push for better workplace conditions. And Kayla Blado rejects the claim that "self-care" is any substitute for collective action.

- Finally, Elizabeth McSheffrey reports on the systemic culture of cover-ups when it comes to health and safety dangers caused by the fossil fuel sector. Justin Nobel discusses how North Dakota's regulator helped an operator misreport the size of an oil spill by a factor of a million. The Canadian Press reports on the new Bonterra spill which has dumped oil into a creek feeding into the North Saskatchewan River and Edmonton's water supply. And Morgan Krakow reports on a cyanide spill which affected drinking water in Michigan for days before the public was made aware.

Sunday Morning Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Erika Beauchesne discusses the benefits of a wealth tax as both a means of reducing inequality, and a source of revenue for public priorities:

Canada’s NDP has proposed a one per cent tax on wealth over $20 million as part of its election platform. The party doesn’t include much detail yet but estimates it could generate several billion dollars a year.

Pundits have been quick to pounce on a wealth tax as too extreme, difficult or costly. A National Post column last month asked: “What is the problem to which creating a wealth tax is a solution?”

Growing inequality is the problem.

The richest families in Canada are now more than 4,400 times wealthier than the average family, according to a study by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).

This widening gap has gone hand-in-hand with declining social and economic mobility. The CCPA found that family dynasties are more likely to keep their money in the family than they were two decades ago thanks to light taxes and loopholes that primarily benefit the wealthy, while Statistics Canada recently reported that family income mobility has declined since the 1980s.
...
There’s debate among economists about the pros and cons of annual wealth taxes, and whether inheritance taxes and other taxes on capital and wealth would work better. Canadians for Tax Fairness, an organization that advocates for fair and progressive taxation, has called for restoring an inheritance tax on high-wealth estates to narrow Canada’s widening wealth gap, make our tax system fairer and generate funds to pay for public services. Democratic leadership contender and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders proposed a similar plan to expand the estate tax for inheritances over US$3.5 million.

The question and debate should no longer be whether we have increased taxes on wealth and capital, but what form they should take. We should thank the NDP for getting this debate going in Canada, and look forward to seeing what other federal political parties propose.

- And Douglas Todd notes that a failure to adequately tax wealth as opposed to income has left British Columbia in the position of subsidizing foreign ownership of desperately scarce housing.

- Melanie Green offers some important background information as a British Columbia inquiry begins analyzing the cause of soaring gas prices being used by right-wing politicians to attach carbon pricing. Paul Cowley reports on another estimate showing that Alberta faces tens of billions of dollars in well reclamation liabilities left unfunded by the corporations who have extracted oil and gas. And Andrea Palframan reports on the work of the Heiltsuk Nation in documenting the lack of any effective oil spill response along B.C.'s coastline.

- Paul Wells writes that Andrew Scheer's anti-Canada Food Guide bombast can only be the product of a politician taking voters for idiots. And the Star's editorial board argues that we shouldn't allow anybody to play political with health and nutrition.

- Finally, Rick Salutin points out the sheer folly of Doug Ford's insistence that Ontario students earn online credits rather than receiving a full education at school.

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Josh Bornstein writes that in Australia like elsewhere, the combination of increasing corporate profits, stagnant wages and resulting inequality can be traced to the reduced bargaining power of workers. Jim Stanford notes that New Zealand offers an example as to how to reverse the pattern.And Robert Reich highlights why we shouldn't accept the crocodile tears of the uber-rich seeking to shape any response to growing inequality to protect their own disproportionate concentration of wealth:

If Dimon and the others were serious about helping most American workers – whose real wages have been going nowhere for decades and job security is dwindling – they could use their outsized political influence to push for laws requiring CEOs to consider all their stakeholders, not just shareholders.

Rather than make it harder for workers to unionize, they could fight to make it easier, and to give workers larger voice in management decisions and a greater share of the profits.

Rather than reflexively seek tax cuts, they could push to raise taxes on corporations and wealthy Americans like themselves, so there’d be more school funding to prepare American kids for the jobs of the future.

They could seek a higher minimum wage, a larger Earned Income Tax Credit, universal healthcare, and other measures to make left-behind Americans more secure.
...
(A)s heads of institutions with the greatest influence over American politics, they also have a duty to the common good and are uniquely positioned to advance it.

For 40 years, CEOs of America’s largest corporations and Wall Street banks have abdicated this responsibility.

We are now living with the consequences. Jamie Dimon and the Business Roundtable can see those consequences as well as anyone.

Rather than announce token jobs programs, they’d be better served seeking to increase the economic and political power of left-behind Americans – many of whom will otherwise continue to vote for demagogues who only make them feel powerful.

- Meanwhile, Joe Demanuelle-Hall highlights the beginning of strike action to force Amazon to treat workers with a modicum of respect and dignity.

- PressProgress reports on the Libs' school meal program which features precisely zero funding.

- In a reminder as to how discriminatory policy seldom survives contact with any system designed to ensure fairness, Nicholas Keung reports on the Federal Court's determination that the Harper Cons' attempt to negate the rights of refugees by labeling specific countries of origin as "safe" is unconstitutional. And Patrick White reports on a judgment awarding tens of millions of dollars in damages against Correctional Service Canada for using solitary confinement to warehouse prisoners with mental health needs.

- Riki Ott and Jack Siddoway point out that while fossil fuel flacks try to pretend there have been major advances to limit the risk associated with offshore drilling and ocean transportation of oil products, the reality is that there's been substantially no improvement in the response to oil spills since the Exxon Valdez disaster. And Laura Parker writes about the need for a coordinated international response to the growing plastic waste crisis.

- Finally, Sean Holman discusses the need for massive improvements in the flow of information between governments and citizens - both to ensure that we know what our leaders are doing, and to require them to listen to the will of the public.

Sunday Morning Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Paul Krugman duly mocks Donald Trump's attempt to turn any discussion of social investment into a threat of "socialism":

Some progressive U.S. politicians now describe themselves as socialists, and a significant number of voters, including a majority of voters under 30, say they approve of socialism. But neither the politicians nor the voters are clamoring for government seizure of the means of production. Instead, they’ve taken on board conservative rhetoric that describes anything that tempers the excesses of a market economy as socialism, and in effect said, “Well, in that case I’m a socialist.”

What Americans who support “socialism” actually want is what the rest of the world calls social democracy: A market economy, but with extreme hardship limited by a strong social safety net and extreme inequality limited by progressive taxation. They want us to look like Denmark or Norway, not Venezuela.

And in case you haven’t been there, the Nordic countries are not, in fact, hellholes. They have somewhat lower G.D.P. per capita than we do, but that’s largely because they take more vacations. Compared with America, they have higher life expectancy, much less poverty and significantly higher overall life satisfaction. Oh, and they have high levels of entrepreneurship — because people are more willing to take the risk of starting a business when they know that they won’t lose their health care or plunge into abject poverty if they fail.

- Meanwhile, Aamna Mohdin reports on new research showing that nearly a million more young adults in the UK are living with their parents due to an economy which has kept wages stagnant while driving prices and debt upward.

- PressProgress points out the problems with the Libs' infrastructure bank which prioritizes corporate profits over the delivery and accessibility of needed services.

- Murray Mandryk discusses how Scott Moe is feeding into anti-immigrant bigotry by putting pipeline development above all else. And Sharon Kelly writes that the Keystone pipeline - one of the Saskatchewan Party's previous hobby horses - is once again spilling oil while failing to live up to promised environmental standards.

- Finally, Felicity Lawrence writes that our current food system is affecting both our health, and that of our planet.

Saturday Afternoon Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Joe Vipond and Noel Keough highlight the gap between the global impetus to avoid climate breakdown and the narrow self-interest of the Alberta oil industry. Michael Bueckert discusses Jason Kenney's attempt to turn the government apparatus against the exercise of fundamental freedoms through boycotts. And Markham Hislop comments that violent rhetoric from Kenney and his supporters is entirely counterproductive. 

- Meanwhile, Janani Whitfield reports on the damage being done to Saskatchewan municipalities by oil and gas operators skipping their tax payments. Janis Searles Jones and Phillipe Cousteau write about the Taylor Energy oil spill which has been polluting the Gulf of Mexico for over 14 years. And Jennifer Ludden reports on the Trump administration's decision to let coal plants inflict mercury and other toxic emissions on unsuspecting citizens.

- Jennifer Keesmat argues that Canada's cities need to be designed for people rather than cars - particularly in light of the death toll piling up as vehicle traffic has been prioritized over pedestrian safety.

- Doug Cuthand writes on the potentially wide-ranging effects of a recent Ontario court decision finding that Canada's treaty obligations should be interpreted to recognize shared ownership and account for modern developments.

- Finally, Taylor Owen opines that after a year of even more outrages than usual, it's time for governments to meaningfully regulate the online platforms which currently exercise massive and unchecked power.

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Avi Lewis contrasts the real crises which demand our attention against the manufactured ones which are instead promoted by far too many of our political leaders:

Even for those of us who have not yet experienced personal loss and trauma from climate catastrophe, the juxtaposition of our genuine planetary emergency with cynically manipulated fake crises is getting painful. It’s gaslighting on a national scale. We are bombarded by endless coverage of the fake crisis in the oil patch while the real crisis of all life everywhere is so often rendered invisible.

We are living in a state of planetary emergency. It has been declared by scientists, Indigenous leaders, social movements, and communities that were already living in a state of daily emergency long before the extent of the climate catastrophe became clear. We have solutions that will truly benefit everyone — especially those most marginalized and under attack by the current extractive system, and those currently working in industries that need to be wound down.

But we can’t get started until this emergency is felt — viscerally — by a great many more people, especially the hardest to reach: our political leaders. That’s precisely what is happening in the United States, where a generation of complacent corporate Democrats is suddenly being challenged by a crowd of impatient millennials, bursting with the urgency of their generation, creating an emergency for the political status quo. Apparently, losing power is the only crisis that politicians can really understand.

 - David Moscrop argues that it's long past time for climate change defeatists to get out of the way of the people with the hope and vision necessary to do the work to avert total climate breakdown.

- Stephen Cornish observes that Husky's uncontrolled SeaRose oil spill shows how reckless it is to approve offshore drilling and other projects which threaten water with contamination. And Andrew Nikiforuk confirms that fracking operations have been the cause of earthquake activity in B.C., leading to at least a temporary shutdown. 

- George Monbiot exposes how the Koch brothers are buying political influence in the UK and elsewhere - and choosing to do so by funding hate. And Monia Mazigh comments on the resulting increase in hate crimes in Canada and the U.S. - even as right-wing parties blithely ignore the dangers they've created and exacerbated for minority-group members.

- Hamid Dabashi notes that Justin Trudeau's Potemkin progressivism is no better for our long-term hopes than the reactionary politics of Donald Trump and his ilk.

- Finally, Sam Pizzigati examines who stands to lose and gain from GM's massive job cuts.

Saturday Evening Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Nick Charity reports on the observations of the UN's envoy on poverty and human rights that callous and cruel austerian political choices have caused harm to millions of UK residents.

- Tess Kalinowski reports on the reality that Doug Ford's move to remove rent controls won't do anything to make housing available to the people who need it most. And Rick McGinnis writes that even leaving aside the importance of dealing with poverty and homelessness generally, suburban residents can't pretend they're somehow contained in core urban areas only.

- Meanwhile, Mike Crawley points out that a first set of cuts to important services won't even put a dent in Ontario's provincial debt - especially since it's being used to fund giveaways to polluters and the wealthy. And Robert Benzie notes that those handouts to the rich and their businesses are being paired with a loophole to allow corporations to funnel political donations through employees.

- Bill McKibben discusses how climate breakdown is shrinking the habitable space on our planet. Climate Transparency's Brown to Green study (PDF) highlights how Canada has both the highest emissions per capita of any G20 country, and the fourth-highest proportion of public financing for the fossil fuel sector as a proportion of GDP. And Charlie Smith interviews Donald Gutstein about the Libs' "grand bargain" (at the request of the oil industry) to keep allowing unsustainable emissions as long as they're attached to modest prices. 

- Finally, Malone Mullin reports on the Husky oil spill off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador which can't even be examined (let alone cleaned up).

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Giri Sivaraman and Jim Stanford challenge the right-wing dogma that unions - and unions alone among private actors - should be expected to provide benefits independent of any contributions. Fiona Onasanya discusses the need for collective action to push back against exploitation by corporate behemoths like Amazon. And Doug Nesbitt highlights the role organized labour plays in combating workplace racism.

- Meanwhile, Noah Smith points out that Donald Trump's giveaways to the wealthy have predictably resulted in wage cuts for workers. And Josh Hoxie tallies up the U.S.' lost public revenue just from tax cuts implemented since 2000 at $10 trillion.

- Katherine Martinko warns against putting too much stock in corporate branding campaigns rather than laws and policies which meaningfully improve environmental outcomes.

- David Suzuki reminds us that we can't hide from the consequences of climate change. And Karen Bartko reports on the latest spills in Alberta's oil patch.

- Finally, Jacob Serebrin reports on new research showing how Quebec's public child care system has enabled a far larger number of women to participate in the workforce.

Saturday Morning Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Quirks & Quarks examines the potentially devastating effects of a dilbit spill on British Columbia's coast. And David Climenhaga warns that Kinder Morgan is looking at NAFTA to provide it an alternate source of risk-free profits at public expense.

- Mia Rabson reports on Canada's continued failure to come anywhere close to our already-insufficient emission reduction commitments. And Laura Kusisto and Arian Campo-Flores examine how oceanfront properly is beginning to lose its value as buyers recognize the impending effects of climate change.

- Thomas Walkom offers his take as to why Canada needs a universal pharmacare system. But Andre Picard points out the need to be much more specific about what will be included and how it will be funded. 

- Hugh Segal argues that prosperous societies have a particular duty to eliminate poverty and insecurity - including by guaranteeing a basic income.

- Finally, Stop the Cuts weighs in on yet another austerity budget from the Saskatchewan Party. And Murray Mandryk criticizes the Moe government's belief that it's above any need for ethics.

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Ann Pettifor discusses the trend toward financialization which has led to regular economic disasters - and suggests the public is well aware it's getting left behind in the policy choices which have created it.

- ScienceDaily takes note of the strong connection between education levels and longevity.

- Sarah Jones calls out the U.S. Republicans' constant steps to withhold food from people who need it - including children who have to attend school hungry as a result. And Andrew Sniderman and Vincent Larochelle discuss the unfairness of mandatory surcharges which impose lasting debts on people with no ability to pay them.

- David Suzuki points out the regular occurrence of dangerous oil spills around the world while highlighting the risks of any Trans Mountain expansion. Martin Lukacs writes that it's Indigenous protestors against pipeline expansion who are actually defending the national interest. And Kai Nagata asks for suggestions as to how we could better use $8 billion of public money other than to subsidize a pipeline for the benefit of Enron alumni.

- Finally, Luke Savage comments on the contrast between Justin Trudeau's slogans and his actions while in power:

(I)t is the disparity between Trudeau’s rhetorical posturing and political execution that perhaps best illustrates the essential conservatism of his government. Social investment and Keynesianism, supposedly the defining pillars of Liberal economic strategy, have given way to corporatism and stealth privatisation.

Even as Trudeau performatively condemns corporate elites, his supposed war on inequality has amounted to tinkering with income tax brackets while opposing a $15-an-hour minimum wage for federal workers. The legalisation of marijuana looks increasingly like a cynical revenue-raiser for avaricious former politicians and ex-cops, rather than a deserved reprieve for those criminalised by the previous system. And while Trudeau’s government was talking up feminism and human rights abroad, it was also signing the export permits for $15bn-worth of armoured vehicles – including some labelled “heavy assault” – to Saudi Arabia.

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- The New York Times' editorial board comments on the predictable flow of the Trump tax cuts toward primarily the few who already had more wealth than they could possibly put to productive use. And Tom Parkin discusses Jagmeet Singh's expectation that Canadians expect better from their government:

Surely one sharp contrast will be drawn with Trudeau’s proposed Infrastructure Bank, which hands over public infrastructure financing to private capital investors. Trudeau’s private banking approach increases financing costs significantly. And, because investor profits are required, Trudeau’s plan gives private investors a significant role in controlling which infrastructure projects — roads, bridges, community centres, transit — go forward and which won’t.

On infrastructure, Singh has plenty of room to develop contrasting policies that regain public control over projects and redirect financing costs into more project construction.

Another sharp policy contrast is likely to be drawn over tax policies. Trudeau, like Prime Minister Stephen Harper before him, continues to cut taxes and maintain loopholes for corporations and high-income Canadians, creating an increasingly unfair tax system.
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Singh’s contrasting vow to “unrig” the tax system and restore fairness isn’t new. During his NDP Leadership campaign, Singh released a bundle of tax fairness proposals including increased corporate taxes, higher taxes on incomes over $350,000 and an estate tax on high inherited wealth. Those ideas may now get fine-tuned, but clearly they will not be abandoned.

The broad strokes of Singh’s conflict with Trudeau have been drawn. Jagmeet Singh doesn’t simply seek to replace Justin Trudeau. Singh seeks to rebuild a trust, broken by Trudeau, that public infrastructure and progressive taxation are social goods that create fairness and a strong country. If Singh can rebuild that trust he will have put himself on strong ground for his conflict with Justin Trudeau in 2019.

- Meanwhile, Ed Pilkington reports on the massive amounts of money spread around by U.S. billionaires to attack public-sector unions to lay the groundwork for this week's Supreme Court argument to trash the concept of collective action. And Rachel Cohen highlights some of the consequences if collective bargaining is treated as pure free speech rather than a separate class of activity.  

- Chris O'Neill-Yates reports on Husky's "economic" decision to risk a collision between an oil production vessel and an iceberg, while the Canadian Press reports on the HMCS Calgary's fuel spill off of Vancouver Island.

- Max Fineday argues that there's no prospect of reconciliation in Canada as long as Indigenous people's lives are being treated as expendable. And Tanya Talaga discusses how a long and shameful track record of deaths without accountability parallels the history of injustice for Indigenous people.

- Finally, John Nichols makes the case to lower the legal voting age to 16.

On historical perspective

I'll give Roland Priddle this much: he's absolutely right in his impression that the best way to argue for waving through expanded tar sands pipelines without an unbiased review is to pretend that nobody has learned anything about environmental protection, oil or dilbit spills, climate change, or energy industry trends over the past six-plus decades.

But I'll suggest that the public interest is probably best served by analysis based in the present rather than 1951.

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Paul Krugman reminds us of the fraud that is right-wing bleating about deficits:

There have been many “news analysis” pieces asking why Republicans have changed their views on deficit spending. But let’s be serious: Their views haven’t changed at all. They never really cared about debt and deficits; it was a fraud all along. All that has changed is the fact that a Republican now sits in the White House.

How do we know Republicans were never sincere about the deficit? It was obvious, even at the time, to anyone who looked at their fiscal proposals. These proposals always involved giant tax cuts for the wealthy — funny how that worked — offset by savage cuts in social benefits. Even so, assertions that deficits would go down depended entirely on assuming lots of revenue from closing unspecified loopholes and huge savings from cutting unspecified government programs. In other words, even at the peak of their deficit-hawk posturing, all Republicans really had to offer was redistribution from the poor to the rich.

...

Please, let’s not talk about the wrongheadedness of fiscal policy — about imposing austerity in a depressed economy, then running up the deficit when we’re already near full employment — as a problem of “political dysfunction,” or assert that both parties are to blame. Democrats didn’t block stimulus when the economy needed it, or push a tax cut that will worsen inequality and explode the national debt.

No, this is all about Republican bad faith. Everything they said about budgets, every step of the way, was fraudulent. And nobody should believe anything they say now.

- Thomas Walkom discusses how we shouldn't mistake a few peaks in a fluctuating stock market for more a sound economy. And Doug Henwood expands on the fact that the recent downturn reflects the aversion of wealthy shareholders to any wage growth.

- Meanwhile, Torsten Bell highlights the sheer impossibility of overcoming the effects of structural inequality merely by trying to work and save with an average income.

- Martin Lukacs comments on the Trudeau Libs' eagerness to have an anti-science Trump administration lobby for pipelines. Ricardo Acuna challenges some of the spin being used to try to sell the Trans Mountain expansion, while Elizabeth McSheffery fact-checks Scott Moe's early attempt to use the office of the Premier to serve the oil lobby. And Mitchell Anderson questions why British Columbia (and anybody concerned about protecting our natural environment) should pay the price for Alberta's squandering of past oil revenue.

- Justin Mikulka writes about the gap between promises and reality in responding to spills of diluted bitumen.

- Finally, CTV reports on Trajectoire Quebec's research into the high costs of subsidizing the cost of driving.